Early Life of Lexington Before the Year 1820
Religious Organizations & Publications
Besides the church itself, there were a number of important religious organizations. In 1806 all the gentlemen, who had subscribed their names as members of the Bible Society, were requested to be punctual in attendance at the Presbyterian Meeting House, Friday at four p.m. (Sept. 26, 1806). In 1810 the members of the Bible Society met at the University Hall at ten o'clock in the morning (Apr. 24, 1810). Three years later the Kentucky Bible Society was holding its annual meetings in Lexington at the Presbyterian Meeting house (Sept. 28, 1813). Assembled at this place of worship, the religious workers listened to a sermon (Sept. 12, 1814). In the same year the board of directors of the Baptist Mission Society of Kentucky met at the court-house, where a sermon was delivered for the occasion (July 17, 1818). A year later Messrs. Brand and Postlethwait established a Sunday school at their cotton factory (Sept. 17, 1819).
The religious literature of the time was an important phase of the spiritual life of the people. In 1791 Holland's Essay of Approved Calvinistic Orthodoxy was published. The subjects discussed were:
First, contrast of creation and redemption; second, method and manner of redemption; third, the Apostolic mode of church government (Oct. 8, 1791).
A few years later appeared a religious paper called the Aletheran Critic, or Error Exposed. This paper was to be continued quarterly under the editorship of Abel W. Sayest. Subscribers paid twelve and one-half cents per copy; non-subscribers, seventeen cents. The first number contained a very learned discussion of “the doctrine of endless miseries investigated, or the sinews of anti-christian religion exposed, proving the devil and his kingdom to be mortal and therefore not of endless duration, but only temporary which must cease to exist before God can be called all in all” (May 1, 1804). In 1804 the bishop of the Associate Reform Church gave to the press an “Apology for Calvinism” (May 8, 1804).
Delcamp, Mary Estelle. Early Life of Lexington Before the Year 1820. Transylvania University, 1916.
Transcribed by P. Brinegar.
Updated January 9, 2026.